Improvement in railway rails



W. PECKHAM.

Railway Rails.

N0. 41,535, PatentedAugust5,1873` run the entire length of the rail.

fr PATENT FFICE.

WILLIAM PEOKHAM, OF MIDDLETOVVN, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAV RAILS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,515, dated August 5, 1873; application iled May 7, 1873.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM BECKHAM, of Middletown, of the county of Newport and State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Rails for Railways 5 and do hereby declare the same tofbe,

fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a transverse section of a rail provided with my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of such a rail in part.

The object of the invention is to prevent, when a rail may become broken across, a portion of it getting out of alignment with the rest or the next adjacent rail.

One of the most common causes of a railway carriage or train accidentally running oft a track is owing to the breakage transversely of a rail and one of the pieces becoming thrown out of line with the track. With my addition to the rail no such accident can occur, for, should the rail break with the fracture extending across it, both portions will be kept in line or be preserved in their normal positions relatively to the others or next adjacent rails of the track.

In carrying out my invention, I form the rail A with a dovetailed groove, a, running lengthwise of it, from end to end and in its base, the narrower part of the groove being at the bottom ofthe base, and the wider part being above such, as represented, and within the said groove I insert a correspondinglyshaped metallic bar, B, to t the groove, and Sometimes I allow the said bar to extend in like manner into the next rail or its groove a short distance, whichvaids in keeping the rails in alignment.

It will be evident that should the rail become broken in two, the protection-bar will remain whole in most if not all cases, and will maipntain the parts of the rail in their proper positions.

I make no claim to the dovetailed grooved rail and means of connecting it to a timber, as shown in the United States Patent N o. 430, dated October 18, 1837, such means differing entirely in construction and operation from the protection-bar B applied, as hereinbefore explained, to a dovetailed grooved rail, it being necessary to my invention that the said bar B should extend entirely through the rail A from end to end thereof. Nor do I claim a rail provided with a rod or series of twisted wires inserted in its head or tread portion and lincorporated therewith, in manner ,as shown and described in the United States Patent No. 137 ,463, my invention or improvement involving a new arrangement of the protection rod or bar, viz., in and throughout a dovetailed groove made in the base ofthe rail, and opening through the lower surface thereof.

What I claim as my invention is- The rail A provided with the dovetailed groove a and protection-bar B arranged in it, as and for the purpose specified.

WILLIAM BECKHAM.

Witnesses It. H. EDDY, J. R. SNOW. 

